The Karolinska Institute in Stockholm announced the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2014 to May-Britt and Edvard Moser, director of the Kavli Institute of Neuroscience, Norwegian, and John O’Keefe for his works on spatial representation in brain.
The three winners are considered pioneers in research on brain mechanisms for representing space and the jury has recognized the findings of the cells that form the spatial positioning system of the brain and allows us to know where we are at any given time or how to get from one place to another.
In 1971, John O’Keefe (New York, 1939) discovered the first part of this GPS cerebral , a type of nerve cell located in the hippocampus, “and that is always active when mice are in a certain place in a room”, explains the jury in its minutes prize. Upon discovering that the change of location in the room, the rodent brain activated another group of different cells, O’Keefe concluded that this cell family (called place cells ) composed a kind of ‘em > location map in our brain.
It was not until 2005 that the Norwegian marriage of May-Britt (Fosnavag, 1963) and her husband Edvard Moser (Alesund, 1962) discovered another key piece of this neurological mechanism, other cell (called network or grid , in English) involved in more detailed in space and allow us to navigate through a complex environment without disorienting positioning and location.
Although studies of these three pioneers of neuroscience were conducted mainly in mice, recent studies in patients undergoing neurosurgical techniques have demonstrated that humans also have this complex neuronal interconnection between place cells and cell network that lets you interact and move through physical space.
O’Keefe which holds twice British-US passport and is currently director of the Sainsbury Centre for Neural Circuits of the University College London (UK), while Britt Moser and direct the Kavli Institute of Neuroscience and Center for Biology of Memory (KI / CBM) in Trondheim (Norway).
This is the first of the the Swedish Academy awards delivered in the coming days, and that sets the standard in Physics, Chemistry, Literature, Peace and the Economy. They are endowed with a prize of eight million Swedish kronor (about 880,000 euros) winners will share.
In 2013, the Nobel medicine prize went to American James E. Rothman Randy W. Schekman and German (of origin, though resident in the USA) Thomas Südhof for his discoveries in the machinery that regulates cell traffic. A year earlier, in 2012, decided to Karolisnka Shinya Yamanaka and John B. Gurdon for his work on cellular reprogramming, which have been key to the progress of regenerative medicine in recent years.
With the exception of Robert Edwards, award-winning solo in 2010 for his achievements in the field of fertilization in vitro , all Nobel Medicine since 2000 have been shared by two or more researchers. In the past 14 years, only four women have been on the list of 31 Nobel Laureates in Medicine in this period; while if the mirror is extended to 1901, among the 11 scientists awarded a select club’s name now joins Maybritt. Furthermore, is the fifth time in history that the award is given to a marriage .
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